December 3, 2004
My day consists of a peanut butter sandwich on raisin bread for breakfast, coffee and cookies during the day and the famous rice & veggies for supper! The school provides us with one meal a day and it always consists of a styro-foam container with two sections. One side is white sticky rice (the sticky part is only way to eat it with chopsticks, otherwise it’s impossible) and the other side is vegetables saturated in oil with hot red and green peppers thrown in. The vegetables vary each day so if you ask for something specific you never get it. For 2 items it’s 4 yuan and for 3 it’s 5 yuan. Pretty cheap. (Divide it by 6 for Canadian dollars). I’ve had rice and carrots, rice and cabbage, rice and green beans, rice and pumpkin, rice and lotus, rice and pea pods….the list goes on. I am starting to sound like that guy in Forest Gump……….shrimp cocktail, fried shrimp, shrimp and coconut…………you get the idea!

When we get home after classes around 9:30 pm it’s snack time. In the evening we munch on potato chips (yes, they have Lays here), dried fruit or pistachios. I’ve purchased a few things that looked delectable only to find out they tasted like crap. Live and learn! It’s hard when you can’t read the labels and if there is no picture – forget it!

It was Friday night and we had to get up early for 9 am classes but that didn’t stop anyone including me. Heather, Jurgen, Kim and I wanted to go out for a nice dinner. Heather, who is on her second year here after a 3 month stint back in Edmonton, suggested The Brazilian as she had been there before. It is located in the lobby of the Gold Source which is a five star hotel. It was within walking distance of the apartment. For 65 yuan we had the all-you-can-eat buffet. We were seated in plump chairs with linen napkins, knives and FORKS! The buffet consisted of a salad bar (typical) a hot food bar and dessert bar. Ok! The unique thing about this restaurant was three of four waiters went table to table carrying large metal skewers with meat on them and they served it you right onto your plate. Talk about protein overload! There was filet mignon (yummy), bacon rolls with some kind of seafood inside, little mini octopus’, pork balls, tiny little chickens (they must have been baby chicks they were so small) and shrimp. The food bar had your regular rice and vegetables cooked in oil and hot red peppers (What – no mashed potatoes and gravy?) along with crab, shrimp, bullfrog, snake and lamb. I stuck with the beef and pork – I’m not brave enough to venture further right now. Although my hatred of snakes would mean the ultimate revenge, I just could not do it.

Everyone laughed at me for putting salt on my watermelon slices. They said it must be an “Ontario” thing………..no, I don’t think so. I really don’t know where I got that from but it tastes good and that’s the way I like it – so there!

After dinner we cabbed it to another big hotel that holds “English Corner” in a lounge by the lobby every Tuesday and Friday night. Chinese people – mostly students – go there to talk to the ‘foreigners’ and practice their English. To encourage the English people they offer them free drinks! Nice! I had a nice tall mug of cold beer! I have no idea what kind it was but it went down well. (Corona is available here at the supermarket.) There were about 50 people there and a good mix of English and Chinese and varied ages as well. We grabbed the last free couch and before we knew it we were all talking to people who came over and introduced themselves. I spent most of the 2 hours we were there talking to Louis. He is 32 and an Engineer at the Research Institute for Oceanography. His English wasn’t too bad, although, I had to ask him to repeat things often. From what I could gather they do underwater dives in the Pacific Ocean and his company sends top people to Hawaii for 4 months every year for more research. He is hoping to get picked next year. He has never been outside of China. He mostly wanted to know about Canada and we talked about the social differences. It was very interesting! We all enjoyed it very much and intend to return often……….and the free drinks are not the incentive……….yeah, right!

Only one picture, I know. I’m still catching up from last week. I have more pictures coming in the next entries. So hang on to your shorts!